No more Paan Singhs?

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan believes the recent movie on the Indian athlete-turned-dacoit Paan Singh Tomar might be a touching narration on the life of a person who won medals for the country but was forced to become a dacoit, but he emphasises that the situation in dacoit-prone areas of Chambal has changed in the last five years. In an informal conversation on the state of affairs in the region, Chouhan claimed that the Madhya Pradesh police had gunned down more than 175 dacoits in the past five years and arrested more than 1,400 of them. “We used to have dacoits who would raid villages and loot gold jewellery but now they operate only to collect ransom and abduct people. The action taken by the state police has finished these gangs,” said Chouhan.